Apple and Google control exactly what data apps can possibly harvest, via their OS permissions. There are millions of apps on their app stores. If apps are acting like spyware then the government should pressure Apple and Google to fix the issue at the OS level. Otherwise it's just whack-a-mole.
US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19
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Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19
#821) Excellent way to teach millions of people about sideloading overnight. This could be a big win for Android (where sideloading is easy) vs. iPhone were sideloading is impossible (? or only possible only with an annual dev license?) 2) Will this affect apps like CapCut and Lemon8 too?
Tiktok servers will be banned at the T1 carrier level, probably.
Do you have a source that the act is being interpreted by the government to include prohibiting network operators from serving traffic? That definitely seems like it would be a stretch given the text of the act
The act prohibits
> (A) Providing services to distribute, maintain, or update such foreign adversary controlled application (including any source code of such application) by means of a marketplace (including an online mobile application store) through which users within the land or maritime borders of the United States may access, maintain, or update such application.
> (B) Providing internet hosting services to enable the distribution, maintenance, or updating of such foreign adversary controlled application for users within the land or maritime borders of the United States.
With the following relevant definition
> (5) Internet hosting service.—The term “internet hosting service” means a service through which storage and computing resources are provided to an individual or organization for the accommodation and maintenance of 1 or more websites or online services, and which may include file hosting, domain name server hosting, cloud hosting, and virtual private server hosting.
Which I've basically read as "it will be removed from app stores and not be allowed to host content on US servers". Which as a matter of policy seems more than sufficient to reduce the reach of tiktok to a tiny fraction of it's current US user base.
Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19
#831) this is going to open younger peoples eyes to installing stuff outside of app stores. which i think is a great development. 2) if We believe that social media has the ability to influence to the degree that we’re going to outlaw a company, why tf are we not outlawing all manipulative algorithms, from every country? i absolutely do not magically trust billionaires just because they’re from the US… and i certainly d…
> i absolutely do not magically trust billionaires just because they’re from the US… and i certainly don’t trust them more than i trust any government. there’s reasonable arguments that they’re more dangerous than governments. after everything we’ve seen these social media titans do, it’s absurd to trust them.
What does it mean to "trust" them?
Right now you are on hacker news, a social media site which is owned by ycombinator and is run by a board of some billionaires. What are you doing here reading the articles on the front page and posting comments??
Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19
#84Americans can’t invest directly in Chinese companies and shouldn’t be obligated to host Chinese companies in their markets or be surprised when political whims ban them, since the lack of shared investment is political too. People clearly enjoy the content on there so the outcome is sad but it’s a complicated economic dynamic that is hard to grasp
60% of Bytedance is owned by American investors https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/26/technology/tiktok-investo... > Susquehanna, a global trading firm, first invested in ByteDance in 2012 and now owns roughly 15 percent of the company, a person familiar with the investment said. The Chinese arm of Sequoia Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, invested in ByteDance in 2014 when it was valued at $500 million. S…
Literally does not matter. ByteDance is a Chinese company and beholden to the CCP.
Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19
#85As grating as this is to freedom of expression, I’ve been annoyed enough times by ‘tok’ers doing crap like I dunno, licking ice cream buckets in supermarkets, I’m also looking forward to that going away for a few months till the next thing replaces it. Unfortunately, this is pretty bad precedent. While I love my country, these sorts of decisions are as federal level are pretty scary and I question whether the governm…
> I’ve been annoyed enough times by ‘tok’ers doing crap like I dunno, licking ice cream buckets in supermarkets,
Did you ever see that in person? I feel like this is just typical outrage about something that maybe a total of 5 people did, so basically irrelevant.
Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
They already do, all they gotta do is take out the redirect to App popup and voila.
It's not amazing, just like most web apps from big tech.
It's not amazing by choice. Web apps for internet video playing would work fine, companies just make their mobile websites hostile as possible to push you towards their mobile app where you can get the same experience but with significantly more data collection on the app's part.
Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19
#871) Excellent way to teach millions of people about sideloading overnight. This could be a big win for Android (where sideloading is easy) vs. iPhone were sideloading is impossible (? or only possible only with an annual dev license?) 2) Will this affect apps like CapCut and Lemon8 too?
TikTok could just release a web app
This was the original vision for iPhone, if I’m not mistaken
Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19
#88I'm not sure how exactly the First Amendment works, so someone please correct me, but does banning a platform constitute a violation if individuals can choose other platforms?
The answer is no, it does not violate the 1st amendment, as proven by the fact that the courts are allowing this ban to go into place.
The government makes laws that effects platforms all the time. And Tiktok is perfectly capable of also following the law by doing what the courts have ordered (divest from its ownership basically).
Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19
#89Apple and Google control exactly what data apps can possibly harvest, via their OS permissions. There are millions of apps on their app stores. If apps are acting like spyware then the government should pressure Apple and Google to fix the issue at the OS level. Otherwise it's just whack-a-mole.
Apple and Google can only control the data shared via the operating system. They can’t control what user behaviors that applications record on the server.
Re: US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19
#901) Excellent way to teach millions of people about sideloading overnight. This could be a big win for Android (where sideloading is easy) vs. iPhone were sideloading is impossible (? or only possible only with an annual dev license?) 2) Will this affect apps like CapCut and Lemon8 too?
iOS has alternative appstores now -in Europe.